Premium tilapia farmer Regal Springs has faced difficulties in its operations in Mexico and Honduras, but the worst is over, according to Vernon Bradley, the company’s head of marketing and media relations.
In Honduras, the company faced high mortality in 2022 and 2023, as well as a government push to eliminate industrial activity on Lake Yojoa, one of the two lakes on which Regal Springs operated. As a result, it will now only operate on Lake El Cajón but will seek to expand production there, with the assistance of local company leadership, Bradley said.
“Lake El Cajón offers bountiful opportunity as a ‘remote’ land very large lake,” he told SeafoodSource in an email. “The transition from two lakes to one lake is well in hand.”
Mexico has been an even larger challenge for Regal Springs, with record-high water temperatures in Lake Malpaso resulting in reduced oxygen levels.
“Output is now back on the upward trend. The company is exploring, and ultimately pioneering, new technologies that strengthen oxygen supply. Lake Malpaso was rested for one year between 2022 and 2023 in line with best practice [and came] back on stream only a few months ago. This will help lift harvest capacity,” Bradley said.
Regal Springs’ Indonesian operations, focused on producing loins for a line of products sold at Costco, are also under new leadership.
“It’s a long-established, unique product performing well, with record outputs,” Bradley said. “The new farming team brought on board in 2023 are proving their value in securing strong record harvests.”
Bradley said Regal Springs will continue to focus on business-to-business sales.
“[They] will remain the bedrock of commercial activities for some time to come, but we [are] now mak[ing] first inroads in the business-to-consumer segment with the Regal Springs brand,” he said. “It is early days, but the response from customers and consumers has been strong.”
Regal Springs launched three added-value products in August under the Regal Springs brand: a beer-battered product, a panko-crusted item, and Crispy Seasoned Tenders; it is also working on others.
“These premium products, targeted toward higher-income families, satisfy the need for great protein in convenient tasty form. They come to market with the expert processing help of [Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based] Channel Fish,” he said.
Additionally, Regal Springs is seeking to ...
